No More
by BobWhite
Summary: Colleen is kidnapped. Full Summary inside. Pls R&R 2 find out more.
1. Grabbed

**Full Summary:**

Colleen just wanted to be left alone. She never thought she'd be grabbed by Indians. What happens when a brave Indian girl risks her life to save Colleen's?

**Grabbed:**

**Between Town & Home:**

Colleen was walking home from school after stopping by the clinic and telling her ma that she was headed home. Dr. Mike had wanted her to stay and help at the clinic but she had gotten mad and said that she deserved to be by herself for a while. At that statement, she left the clinic right as Sully walked in. His faced asked what was going on. All Dr. Mike did was shrug her shoulders.

She was walking home; she was minding her own business. People were always asking her questions and just this once, she wanted to be left alone. She heard the sound of horse hooves but thought nothing of it since horses were always traversing the road between town and different homesteads. She kept going, not realizing the danger she was really in. Not until it was too late.

She was grabbed up from the road and almost immediatley, she started kicking and screaming, trying to get away from whomever had her. Upon being set upon the horse, a strong hand clamped over her mouth to stop her screams. And that's when she got a good look at who now had her in there clutches. It was dog soldiers, renegade Indians from the surrounding territories and tribes that wanted nothing to do with the white men or what they were 'pretending' to be giving them.

The horses veered off the main path and headed west, towards Indian country and away from the comfort of her home and town. Would anyone know what had happened to her?

**The Village:**

She set in a tepee, watching those around her. She had been to the Cheyenne Reservation so many times that she knew what to expect. Snow Bird had spoken often to her and Dr. Mike about what it was like in the old days, when white children were to take the place of a dead Indian child. She hoped that that was not what she was there for. She wanted to go home, back to Dr. Mike, back to Sully and back to Brian and Matthew. She hadn't meant to yell at Dr. Mike, it had just happened. When the Indian girl came in with some food, she tried to tell her not to be scared, but Colleen couldn't help it.

Colleen noticed that the girl was somehow an outcast among the villagers when she was brought out of the tepee the next day. The girl who had brought her food was pushed around a lot and it seemed that nobody trusted her. And when Colleen found out that she had been at the massacre of Washita and lived to tell about it, she knew that the girl was Cheyenne, which would explain why nobody trusted the young girl.

The young girl was good with horses, that's something the tribe couldn't scold or tease her about. She also seemed to take a liking to Colleen. In the three days Colleen had been in the village, the girl had come often to give her food or try and converse. And when Colleen brought up the name Cloud Dancing, it wasn't only the girl that looked at her. Through the girl, whom Colleen came to know as Snow Maiden, the tribe asked Colleen how she knew of Indians. And through Snow Maiden, Colleen told them that her pa used to be the Indian Agent named Sully.

All the Indians knew who Sully was; Cloud Dancing had said that he had gotten word around most of the tribes, letting them know that if they needed a white person to trust, it was to be Sully. And to have grabbed his daughter, what a shame it felt like on some of the tribes people. But none showed any interest in giving Colleen back to her white parents. Snow Maiden and Colleen slept in the same tepee, away from most of the others. Nobody seemed to mind that Snow Maiden and she were friends.

But it soon became clear to Colleen that Snow Maiden had a plan to get both of them out of the village and away from the tribe that had taken them both captive. Would there flight to freedom be taken from them? Or will Colleen and Snow Maiden get away from the village safely?


	2. A Plan To Flee

**A Plan To Flee:**

**The Village: Mid-Day:**

Snow Maiden was working out with the horses when word came from a rider that news of the girl's kidnapping had spread through the white territories. The white men were looking for the girl and they were looking everywhere for her. Turns out, that grabbing the daughter of Indian Agent Sully was really a bad idea, cause it wasn't just Sully and the townspeople that were looking for her. They had been able to get Cloud Dancing from the Reservation and he was helping look for Colleen as well. Snow Maiden continued to work, moving horses through the camp and securing them to different tents. She was securing two horses near her tepee when a hand was placed on her shoulder.

The older Indian looked at what she was doing, looked over at the white child known as Colleen who knew Cloud Dancing and then at Snow Maiden again. He nodded his head as if he had been talking to her and ignored the fact that the young Cheyenne girl was trying to flee the camp of dog soldiers and their families. He too had thought about going to the reservation and living there for a while until all the fighting died down. He too was Cheyenne, though he had been in Indian Territory when Washita had happened. He was the one that had taken in Snow Maiden and raised her like a daughter. They would leave together, at midnight, when no one else was around. He bade her to go see Colleen, who had taken sick after nearly a week of being with them.

The old Indian, whose name was Thunder Dancer, was a medicine man. He had married into the Pawnee, though his wife was dead now from the sickness that now held the white child Colleen. He had taken the two into his tepee and was helping her get better. If they could leave the camp peacefully and without any retaliation from the Dog Soldiers, then they could get the white child Colleen back to her own people and to a white doctor. Colleen had told Snow Maiden that her ma was Medicine Woman, a name given to her by Chief Black Kettle himself after she'd saved his life. She was respected among the Cheyenne and would help them with medicine as much as possible when Cloud Dancing's medicine was not enough. Snow Maiden nodded to thunder Dancer and went to Colleen, who was asleep in the tepee.

**The Village: Midnight:**

Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden had readied the horses that evening, with some of the others watching them carefully. None said anything because they knew the two wouldn't be stupid enough to take the sick white child Colleen with them. So they all went to sleep and left the old medicine man and his adoptive daughter alone to do what they wanted. Though most of the Indians picked on Snow Maiden and pushed her around, they knew better than to do so when she was in the presence of Thunder Dancer. Snow Maiden got Colleen as bundled up as possible and then helped her out to Thunder Dancer's horse. Thunder Dancer picked Colleen up and placed her on his horse before getting up behind her to make sure she did not fall off.

When Snow Maiden had the last bag secured to her own horse, she got on her horse and the three of them headed out of the camp, headed back to the white man's territory. When the camp woke the next morning and discovered that they had taken Colleen with them, they needed to be back in the white man's territory so that the others could not follow them. They would hide in caves with the horses during the day and move out during the night so to make sure none of the Dog Soldiers or others were following them. And to make sure that Colleen was okay during the day.

They knew that there would be retaliation for taking Colleen out of the camp without permission, but if they didn't get her to her Doctor mother, Colleen wouldn't make it into the weekend. The sickness was unlike any they had seen to date and they wanted to make sure she was okay. And the only way to do that was to get her to her mother and to get her back to the whites. They had a long few days ahead of them that was for sure.


	3. Missing

**Missing:**

**Colorado Springs:**

Dr. Mike and the rest of the family were at the homestead when Sully rode back up. He had gone out looking for Colleen after she had failed to show up at the house after storming out of Dr. Mike's clinic nearly four hours ago. When Sully walked through the door and told them that he hadn't been able to find her and that he was going to talk to Daniel in the morning about getting a search party going, Dr. Mike and the rest of the family just sat in their chairs feeling numb. If Colleen could disappear while walking home from town, then nobody was safe. The family packed some things and said that they would be staying at the clinic until Colleen was home safe and sound. And that way if Colleen was injured somewhere and when she was found, Dr. Mike could look at her immediately.

So the next morning, the family grabbed their belongings and headed into town. The town was already stirring and Daniel met them at the clinic asking what was wrong. Sully got down and helped Dr. Mike down, who was pregnant with their second child. Katie was with Matthew and Ingrid who had gotten married a few months ago. Brian had gone over there as well to tell Matthew where they would be staying so that the family could be there for Colleen as well when she was found. After everything was in the rooms in the clinic, Sully went over to where Daniel was, near the Saloon, and told them what had happened. Both hank and Jake, along with Robert E, Daniel and even Matthew said that they would leave as soon as possible to start looking for her. Sully would head over to the Reservation to get Cloud Dancing to have him help in the search as well.

If Colleen wasn't found within the first day or two of her being taken, they didn't know if they would ever see her again, and the whole of the town wanted her back, no matter what it took to get her back. They started out almost immediately. Cloud Dancing was aloud off the Reservation to help look for Colleen and aloud to stay in town while the search was under way. Though the townspeople didn't really like the fact that Cloud Dancing would be in town during the search, they understood why he was. With Dr. Mike pregnant, Andrew out of town and Colleen missing, Cloud Dancing was the next best thing to a doctor that they could trust, and everyone knew that. If it hadn't been for Cloud Dancing's medicinal herbs, then some of the townsfolk would definitely be dead from the epidemic that had swept through their town.

Cloud Dancing stayed with Dr. Mike while the townsfolk went out in search for Colleen, but after nearly a week, they were starting to give up hope of even finding her. Sully and a few others had thought about going into Indian Territory to see if she had been taken there, but there was no telling which camp she would have been taken to (if she was even in Indian Territory to begin with) . Dog Soldiers had been spotted in the area around the time Colleen had been missing and knowing from personal experience, Dr. Mike knew that they wouldn't give Colleen back without a fight. So, when a week had passed, smaller and smaller groups of searchers had been sent out to find her, though Sully, Matthew and Brian went out daily to see if they could find her.

**The Trail:**

Snow Maiden, Thunder Dancer and Colleen were in the cave that they had stopped at during the morning hours of their second day in flight from the Dog Soldiers camp. They knew that the absence of Colleen in the tepee when the others woke the next morning had alerted the Indians as to what had really happened. And they knew that they weren't being followed since they had crossed into the white man's territory on their first night (slightly into the morning hours of course). They were being weary of even the white man because if Colleen was seen with them before they were able to get her back to her home, then both Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden would be killed on the spot (for the kidnapping of Colleen, even though they were returning her to her home). Thunder Dancer had just made some Willow Bark Tea when the sounds of horse hooves could be heard approaching the cave from the south face.

Thunder Dancer grabbed his spear and gave the bow and arrows to Snow Maiden who positioned herself in front of Colleen, who was shivering from fever next to her. Thunder Dancer doused the flames with dirt so there would be no smoke and then positioned himself near the entrance of the cave. It was growing dark and though he wanted to be out of the cave that night, he knew that Colleen needed her rest so they were planning on leaving the next night. The horses were in the back of the cave, near a small pool of water which they lapped at happily. And apparently they weren't the only riders that wanted to use the cave that night, nor were they the only ones that knew about the cave.

Snow Maiden made sure that whoever was about to come through the entrance of the cave couldn't see Colleen's face or hair for fear that she and Thunder Dancer would be shot on site. Snow Maiden had come to cherish Colleen like a sister and would do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost was. The sounds of men's voices filled the air as they tied their horses to the nearest tree and grabbed their belongings. They started to enter the cave when the older man stopped. He saw Thunder Dancer and then Snow Maiden. He thought he saw someone lying behind Snow Maiden, but couldn't be sure who it was. The other two men, both much younger than the one in front of Thunder Dancer stopped as well. And all three looked in awe at what they saw. There was no way they hadn't checked this cave since it was the first thing they checked when Colleen had first gone missing.


	4. Returning Home

**Returning Home:**

**The Cave:**

Thunder Dancer moved backwards towards Snow Maiden and Colleen as he made ready to throw his spear (just in case). Sully, Matthew and Brian entered carefully and it was Sully who spoke up first.

"We ain't here to hurt you. We just need a place to stay for the night, if that is okay with you. My name is Sully; I'm the Indian Agent for the Colorado Springs Reservation. These boys here are my sons Matthew and Brian. We're looking for my daughter Colleen. She was taken nearly a week ago, we think by Dog Soldiers. Can you understand me?"

"We understand. Your search stops here. My name is Thunder Dancer, this is Snow Maiden. I married a Pawnee woman some years back. Snow Maiden survived Washita. And your daughter is safe. She became ill in the Dog Soldiers Camp and when she told us that her mother was a doctor we knew that we had to get her back to her white family. If she had stayed in the camp, she would have died for sure. She is here with us. Snow Maiden protects her like she is her sister. Come see for yourself."

"Colleen!" _Matthew and Brian said at the same time, pushing past Sully and Thunder Dancer and moving next to Snow Maiden who had laid her bow and arrows on the ground and sat next to her friend, who was still shivering with fever._

"Will she be alright?"

"Once we get her back to the white doctor she will. She has not responded to the Willow Bark Tea and this is the second night that I have given it to her. We decided to stop here for the next few days and allow her to rest. She needs to rest; we have been going non-stop for two days since we got out of Indian Territory. Once she is home safely, Snow Maiden and I will leave to go back to Indian Territory where we can live in peace for however much longer we are allowed. Neither of us wanted the life we lived. I took Snow Maiden in as my own daughter when the Dog Soldiers brought her to the camp after Washita. They treated her like she was their slave, but I made sure she always had a roof over her head, or so to say."

"Colleen will want Snow Maiden to stay awhile with her. They are friends aren't they?"

"Yes, if it hadn't been for Snow Maiden, then Colleen would have had it rougher than she did. Snow Maiden and her became fast friends over the course of the week Colleen was with us."

"Alright, we leave in the morning. We can be back in Colorado Springs by midday tomorrow. And Dr. Mike can help Colleen with the help of Cloud Dancing." _Sully said._

"Who is Cloud Dancing?" _Snow Maiden asked._

"Didn't you know him when you were on the Cheyenne Reservation?" _Brian asked._

"No, I was never on the Reservation. My tribe came down from the North to go to the treaty and we met up with the other Cheyenne tribes headed for the treaty as well at Washita. I never knew no Cloud Dancing."

"You were not the only child to survive Washita. A boy, Live In Hopes, survived and was taken west into Indian Territory towards the Yellowstone Area. Cloud Dancing came back and the townspeople accept him as a friend. He lives on the Reservation now."

"And if we didn't want to live on the Reservation and didn't want to go back to Indian Territory? What would happen to us then?"

"We will figure that out once Colleen is better. But for now, we must rest as the two of you look like you could use some rest after the journey you have had."

"Yes, rest is what we need. Snow Maiden, though she is a girl, does wonders with a bow and arrow. I taught her once she was in the camp with us how to survive if I were not around. She seemed to like the fact that she could shoot farther than any of the boys in camp. We do not know if any of the Pawnee Dog Soldiers follow us so we have kept the horses in here with us. It is best that you do the same."

"Sully and I will get them now. Stay with Colleen Brian."

"Okay Matthew."

**Heading Home:**

A night in the cave with Sully and Matthew keeping watch so that Snow Maiden and Thunder Dancer could sleep did wonders on the two weary Indians. The girl, though she slept fitfully, slept near Colleen and only did so with Colleen's head in her lap and she herself sitting against the cave wall. It was amazing the bond one could make in only a week. By morning, the two Indians were awake and moving about the cave getting everything ready to leave. They packed up their belongings and put them on their horses. Colleen was still wrapped in the buffalo hide that Thunder Dancer had wrapped around her when they had fled the Dog Soldier Camp.

Thunder Dancer picked Colleen up once all the horses were outside and ready to go. Sully got up on his horse and Thunder Dancer handed Colleen to him. Matthew and Brian both got on their horses and then Snow Maiden and Thunder Dancer got on their horses after making sure that there was no trace that the group had ever been in the cave system the past few nights. When they rode into town, the townspeople would most likely want to kill them and who knew if there were any soldiers in town now. But maybe Sully, Matthew and Brian could stop them from being killed since they had risked everything to save Colleen's life.

They headed out shortly after sunup, moving towards the town, through the woods at first and then through open fields. It was amazing to see how close to the town that they had actually been. They hadn't realized how close until midday when they moved through some woods and into an open field with buildings surrounding it. The buildings looked like a church and a school house. They would have to go over a small bridge to get to the town and from what Sully had said to get to Dr. Mike, Colleen's mother who could look at her.

**Town:**

The group moved across the bridge with Sully in front and Matthew and Brian in back. Thunder Dancer was in the middle behind Snow Maiden who wanted to be near Colleen, whom she had learned to love like the sister she had lost at Washita. The town was in full swing. An alert had gone out once the group was spotted at the edge of the meadow near the church. Dr. Mike, Cloud Dancing, Grace & Robert E. all walked out of the clinic after Hank had gone in and told them what was going on. They all waited for the group to come to a stop.

Snow Maiden still had the bow and arrows with her, but the arrows were away. She'd been holding the bow just in case she needed to use it. She turned her head and looked back at Thunder Dancer who nodded his head. She put her bow in a bag on her horse before dismounting. Matthew and Brian had already dismounted and even though they were worried about Colleen, they knew that the townspeople would want to hurt the Indians that had saved Colleen's life, so they stayed near Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden.

Once Thunder Dancer had dismounted, he walked up to Sully's horse and took Colleen from Sully so that he could dismount. Once Sully was dismounted, he took Colleen back from Thunder Dancer and entered the clinic with Dr. Mike and Cloud Dancing behind him. Snow Maiden went to follow, but was held back by Thunder Dancer. He spoke to her in Pawnee and told her that they had done what they had come to do. That it was time for them to move on. That he knew she wanted to see if her friend lived, but that it was best to leave the town, just for now. They would leave word with one of the white boys they had ridden with where they were headed.

It really wasn't safe for them to stay in town that night. So after Thunder Dancer told Matthew where they would be staying, Snow Maiden reluctantly left Colleen with her white family. She mounted her horse and turned it towards the bridge they had crossed, and stopped dead in her tracks. There, near the edge of the woods were Pawnee Dog Soldiers, having followed them even though they had left Indian Territory. Thunder Dancer looked to where she was looking and before he could grab her off her horse, an arrow hit her in her shoulder and the horse reared. Snow Maiden fell from her horse, though she didn't hit the ground as Thunder Dancer caught her before she could.

Suddenly the townspeople were all shooting at the Dog Soldiers, Matthew and Brian helped Thunder Dancer get Snow Maiden into the clinic and Robert E. and Grace took charge of the horses and put them all in the paddock at the Livery. So now, not only did they have Colleen to worry about, Snow Maiden now needed to have surgery to remove the arrow from her shoulder.

**The Clinic:**

Thunder Dancer helped Cloud Dancing and Dr. Mike the best he could. And he knew that neither he nor Snow Maiden would be able to return to Indian Country without being hunted for what they had done. Returning a white child to her white family after said white child was taken from said white family to replace an Indian child was the worst sin that could be committed, especially if it were Indians that were returning the white child take from the white family. They would have to go to the reservation whether they wanted to or not.

After the arrow was taken out, Thunder Dancer took Snow Maiden to one of the rooms he was shown and laid her in one of the beds. They would have to make sure that infection didn't set in which would be better if they stayed in town while Snow Maiden recovered, but she would live. Brian came in shortly after with some food for Thunder Dancer who thanked him. Brian smiled before moving to Snow Maiden. He bent down to whisper in her ear a thank you for taking care of his sister then he turned and left.

When morning came, Snow Maiden was awake and eating the food that Grace had brought her. She smiled when Brian came in with some candy from Mr. Bray's store. He gave her some and though it was the first time she'd ever had candy, she seemed to like it. Brian stayed while Thunder Dancer went downstairs to see about the horses. Sully took him the Livery so he could check on the horses and get their belongings off. The horses hadn't been touched so everything was still where it had been put.

"How long do you think Snow Maiden will have to stay at the Clinic?"

"Dr. Mike will most likely want her to stay a few days. I can get you set up at the Reservation if you'd like."

"Snow Maiden has never lived on a Reservation before; I do not know how she will take to it." _They had walked back to the clinic with the belongings from the two Indian horses. They were sitting on the bench, well Sully was sitting but Thunder Dancer was standing. Other townspeople had come to see what they were talking about._

"Snow Maiden mentioned that she joined the other Cheyenne's headed to the treaty from the North. Do you know anything about her lineage?"

"She said that she came from a tribe that held the ancestors in great esteem. That every now and then the spirits would claim the human soul and change them into animals, to teach the human how to respect the world around them. From what I know of her childhood, this happened only once. And at that, she said she was not born a human."

"Then what was she born as? And why would an Indian tribe take her in?" _Mr. Bray asked._

"She was born a bear and the Cheyenne tribe that took her in had just lost a child to the white man's sickness Smallpox. The spirits turned her human so that she could replace the lost child and so that a white child would not have to be taken to replace the child. According to Snow Maiden, the spirits have the right to take back her human life and change her back into a bear whenever they feel the need. But I think the spirits are happy with the life she has lived so far. If her bear family shows up, she says that she will always be able to understand what they are saying, but that it will be her mother's choice whether to have the spirits turn her back into a bear or not."

"You actually believe in that stuff?" _Hank asked._

"I believe in the spirits and I believe that Snow Maiden believes what she has lived. Her life was full of wonders and then Washita happened. Her entire tribe was killed at Washita. I was surprised that the Dog Soldiers were even down that far."

"Don't be too surprised, they shot the girl didn't they?" _Dorothy asked._

"They shot her because we brought Colleen back to her white family. We can never go back to Indian Country for fear that we will be hunted down and killed for returning a white child to her white family. I need to go see how Snow Maiden is doing, excuse me."

With that, Thunder Dancer went back into the Clinic with all of their belongings and headed to Snow Maiden's room. She wasn't in the room, but had moved over to Colleen's room where Brian and Matthew were, waiting for their sister to wake up. He stood outside the door and listened as the three talked about what they did for fun. He smiled as Brian asked her if she could teach him how to shoot a bow and arrow and almost laughed when Snow Maiden answered yes. Maybe they didn't have to live on the Reservation. What would the Army say if they asked to live off the Reservation like a white family? Would they be allowed to live in a cabin?

_**More to come in the next chapter…**_

_**Please REVIEW…**_


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